Wednesday, 25 August 2010

The Hallé Orchestra conducted by Louis Cohen with star soloist Moura Lympany (above) were quite a draw and only the Pavilion would have had enough seats. The Hallé, I suspect, might have preferred the acoustics in the Queens Theatre, West Parade, where they had played earlier in 1940s during World War 2.

The Hallé came to the Queens in 1941 conducted by Sir Henry Wood (b.1869, d.1944) the originator of The Proms concerts. The orchestra returned in 1942 and twice in 1943, each time under Malcolm Sargent (b.1895, knighted 1947, d.1967) who turned down the offer of a musical directorship in Australia to stay in this country while the war was on.

Whatever the issues of acoustics, the Pavilion during the war years hosted appearances by the Bournemouth, Liverpool and London Philharmonic orchestras and the distinguished concert pianists Poushnoff, Moseiwitsch and Mark Hambourg.

At the top is an addition to last week’s selection of present-day Rhyl cafes and restaurants. It is the Bridge Cafe in Kinmel Street which has the offices of Coastline Taxis above. Photograph by Yours Truly.

The other images are from Rhyl History Club Community Archive: a 1970s black-and-white photo of what I call Russell Cafe but clearly ought to be referred to as ‘The Russell’ which was in Russell Road, and a 1960s picture of Roose’s Bar B-Q Cafe & Coffee Bar which was No.7 Queen Street next to National Westminster Bank.

--
Some years ago Ted Groome of St Asaph, who was a soldier billeted in Rhyl during World War 2 recalled: “We liked to pop in for a cuppa at Wally Spraggs’ little cafe which is long gone. It was at No.1 Crescent Square; there was a handy courtyard at the back for our bicycles.
"Sidoli’s (Wellington Road) was a favourite meeting place for soldiers and girlfriends. The coffee was good and there was always a warm welcome from the three Sidoli ladies who managed the place. They were Angiolina (Angie), Esterina and Scolastica (Scolly).”

--
Turning to more recent times, Wayne Chadwick remembers Polish Joe’s in Abbey Street:Polish Joe’s served a breakfast and a half! A ‘belly buster’ was about £6.25 way back in the early 90's but it could feed a family (4 sausages, 4 bacon, 3 eggs, beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, hash browns, fried slice, as much toast as you could eat, as much tea or coffee as you could drink, pork chop, 8oz steak, chips, and if you could finish it all he used to put your name on his 'wall of fame' and the next one was free.
Wayne continues, On the opposite side of Abbey Street there was a small cafe run by Mr. & Mrs. Jeavons with some help from their daughter Sam; they were very nice people. At the top end of Abbey Street there was Carol’s Plaice which was a good chippy. All the Abbey street cafes and restaurants have gone now.

--

FRI 27th AUG 2010 UPDATE: Geoff Hughes writes re Roose’s Bar B-Q: "The cafe was located on the opposite side of Queen Street from the Nat West Bank, next to Maltby's Butchers. The cafe is now known as The Dragon Boat Chinese restaurant; Maltby's is now The Godfather takeaway. The property numbering in Queen Street was changed in the late sixties / early seventies which can cause confusion!
"This also happened in Bodfor Street. Our family's business, Clement Hughes the ironmongers (now Corbetts Betting Shop) was originally numbered 6 Bodfor Street, but was changed to 18 Bodfor Street at the same time.
"This change of property numbering probably occurred in some other Rhyl streets, changing over to odd numbers on one side of the street and evens on the other side."

In recognition of the fact that Rhyl's surrounding countryside is an important part of the resort's appeal to visitors, above are more oldviews of villages nearby.Click on any picture to see a bigger version.From the top:BODELWYDDAN by Rae Pickard of 12 Queen Street, Rhyl;CEFN near St. Asaph: nice old card of Pont-yr-Allt-Goch;DYSERTH card postmarked 1905;RHUDDLAN railway station on the Vale of Clwyd line which closed to passengers in 1955;TREMEIRCHION near St. Asaph: Church of Corpus Christi.--

The older photos above are from the collection of Peter Trehearn. The black-and-white is from late 1930s and shows his father Vernon in a cricket top with members of staff at the Savoy Café, West Parade.

The sepia is from early 1930s and shows Vernon’s father, the redoubtable and ubiquitous Mr. P.T. Trehearn (later a councillor and alderman) with an unknown person outside Adelphi Fish Restaurant, 64-66 Queen Street.

The Adelphi passed out of family control some years ago, and the present owners gave the old restaurant a face lift earlier this year. It is now called Chilli Pink and the speciality is Indian cuisine. Parked cars defeated my attempts to get a clear shot of the place so I pinched the colour picture from a newspaper advert.

Last Wednesday I posted larger versions of these photographs and asked:
(a) Re: the upper photo:
What was the name of the upstairs cafe on the corner where Game Station and Millet's are?
and
(b) Re: the lower photo:
What was the name of the ground floor cafe where The Hair Studio is?

These photographs were taken this month in Rhyl by Yours Truly. They show premises which were formerly cafes/restaurants.

(a) Re: the upper photo:
What was the name of the upstairs cafe on the corner where Game Station and Millet's are?
and
(b) Re: the lower photo:
What was the name of the ground floor cafe where The Hair Studio is?

ALL readers sending both right answers shall be credited with a WIN.
No second tries accepted!

The closing date is Tuesday 17th August 2010 at 12 noon and the result will be published on this site the day afterwards. Please send your answers by email to: rhyl.colin.jones@live.co.uk
--

Here are some Rhyl street scenes from the Edwardian Era. King Edward V11 reigned 1901-1910 but the phrase Edwardian, in common usage, has come to mean the period 1900 until 1914 when World War 1 began.

At the top is a view of Bath Street looking northwards. The large picture in the middle shows the upper part of High Street (The Lorne on left under black sign). Finally we have Bodfor Street looking northwards from near where F. Knowles newsagent is today.

The black-and-white picture above shows Salt & Co.'s White Horse Inn, Bedford Street, Rhyl c.1890. (The premises are suspected to be a lot older but there is no evidence – the deeds are lost.) The licensee’s name above the door is David Parry; the two figures standing at the door are unidentified. The pic is from Rhyl History Club Community Archive.

The colour photo was taken a few days ago by Yours Truly. The old shop to your right of White Horse was demolished or converted long ago, and the pub was extended. At present the pub is derelict. The most recent operators changed the name to Liberty’s (which was a liberty in itself).

A company has submitted plans to build flats on part of the grounds. The plans were deemed unsatisfactory, met with local opposition and were withdrawn.

Further to recent references to photographer Pat Williams, here from Peter Trehearn is a copy of a newspaper advert from front page of Rhyl Journal & Advertiser dated Saturday December 9th, 1939.

The adverts relates to Pat's move to No.2 Sussex Street after a fire at her Portland Studio in High Street. The fire is mentioned in my book ‘Rhyl In The Second World War':

“The war was raging a long way off, but Rhylites of a nervous disposition may have been unsettled by an event in the early hours of Wednesday 15th November. A fierce blaze broke out at Hampson & James, chemists, at 25 High Street . . . The shop went on fire in a cacophony of exploding bottles and falling glass, and there were spectacular colour effects as the chemicals went up in flames. The premises were gutted, and in the studio of Miss Pat Williams upstairs some equipment was destroyed. Mr. Habesch next door had a narrow escape.”

The black-and-white card above is postmarked 1925 and is written in faded pencil to Miss May Morrison of Wolverhampton. The picture indicates that the area of promenade immediately westwards of Coliseum Theatre, top of Abbey Street, once bore the name Abbey Gardens.

Abbey Gardens in due course became a boating pool as shown in the colour card which is postmarked 1968 and sent to S. Pearce, also of Wolverhampton. The prom space under advisement is now part of the Drift Park development.

Last Wednesday I posted these photographs and asked:Re: the upper photo:
(a) What is the name of the street in which I was standing?
(b) What is on the other side of the fence on the left of the picture?Re: the lower photo:
(c) What is the name of the street in which I was standing?
(d) What is the name of the street at the far end of the alley?

The names Mr. & Mrs. Jno. Williams turn up a lot on old Rhyl photos, especially portraits. It seems that Jno was a common way of abbreviating the name John. The picture above was sent by John Powell, or perhaps we could say Jno. Powell, who wonders where in High Street the The White Shop, Portland Studio was.

Cobbling together information received from Mike Lewis-Jones in Australia and Geoff Hughes, the picture is that the studio was opposite what is now The Piazza restaurant, formerly Plaza Cinema. It was above Hampson & James the chemist, 27 High Street (recently the Oggi Oggi bakery & coffee shop).

Eventually the Williams' business was taken over by Pat Williams (family relation maybe) who continued to use the name Portland Studio. Pat was a female professional photographer who was mentioned recently on this blog in connection with a Rhyl Golf Club publication c.1950.

Mike and Geoff confirm that subsequently Pat's business was taken over by Bob Jones who is still well remembered by Rhyl residents. Geoff says:

"Bob Jones hailed from Pwllheli or somewhere thereabouts. At first he traded with the name Pat Williams in brackets after his own name. Later Bob moved from High Street to a studio in Bodfor Street adjoining the Wynnstay Hotel (he rented rather than owned the property).

"I vividly remember trooping upstairs to that studio with my parents and three siblings to have a family photograph taken in 1967/8. (I was eleven at the time.)

"Bob later bought premises at 10 Kinmel Street and moved his studio there (the shop is now the Eastern Delight takeaway). Tragically he became terminally ill and the business was taken over by Graeme Thomas who had worked for Bob for some years."
--SUN 15th MAR 2015: From files of the late Glyn Rees here is an undated photo showing a Pat Williams sign in a differing place in High Street, near Boots chemist. Glyn's notes say that this was known as Magnet Studio and the address is Magnet Buildings.Click on the picture to see a bigger version:

--

THU 7th MAY 2015 UPDATE: An old advert elsewhere in Glyn's collection reveals that the Portland Studio was at No.8 High Street. Hey ho.